The Parent Problem Checklist:
Examining the Effects of Parenting Conflict on Children
The Parent Problem Checklist:
Examining the Effects of Parenting Conflict on Children
Emma Thompson
Student number: 33626985
Submitted for Psychology in the Bachelor of Arts (Honours)
17th of October 2007
Word Count: 12,532
Declaration of Authorship
1, Emma Thompson declare that this paper that I submit is entirely my own work.
Furthermore, I declare that it was authored entirely by me, under the guidance of my
supervisor Dr Alina Morawska, and that the work of others has been appropriately
referenced where used.
-------------------------------------------------------------Signed, Emma Thompson
Signed on the 17th of October 2007.
Acknowledgments.
Firstly I would like to acknowledge the considerable contribution made by my
supervisor Dr Alina Morawska. Without her guidance and support this project would
not have been possible and for her speedy email responses I am truly grateful. I am
also grateful to the assistance given to me by the Parenting and Family Support Centre
at the University of Queensland and for the other students and research assistants that
helped compile the database of email addresses for all Australian schools- I think I
would still be trying to source email addresses without their help.
I would also like to thank the tireless support of my friends and family whose
assistance and continual reassurance meant more than they could possibly know. I
would especially like to thank my partner Aaron Lillie, who read many drafts without
complaint and who listened to my endless concerns with empathy and was always
ready with a hug when I needed it.
Abstract
The effects of parenting conflict, general marital conflict and marital
satisfaction are examined for a sample of 200 parents and their 2 to 16-year old
children from a survey of Australian parents sharing the role of parenting. The
purpose of the present study was threefold: (1) to gain a measure of parenting conflict
and children’s behavioural and emotional problems in a non-clinic referred
community sample, (2) to examine the individual contribution of conflict specific to
child-rearing to the prediction of child problems, and (3) to further validate the
psychometric properties and examine the factor structure of the Parent Problem
Checklist (PPC; Dadds & Powell, 1991). Findings support the hypothesis that
parenting conflict influences children’s outcomes more than either general marital
conflict or marital satisfaction. Analyses of the PPC show evidence of strong
reliability and validity for the measure and factor analysis provided support for a twofactor structure. Implications for clinical practice and understanding the role of
parenting conflict in the development of child difficulty are discussed.
Table of Contents
Introduction_________________________________________________________ 1
Marital Discord and Child Outcomes_____________________________ 1
Marital Quality vs Marital Discord_______________________________ 4
Parental Disagreements about Child-Rearing_______________________ 6
Clinic vs Non-clinic Samples____________________________________ 9
The Parent Problem Checklist: A Measure of Parent Conflict__________10
Aims of the Present Study______________________________________13
Summary of Hypotheses______________________________________ 14
Method____________________________________________________________ 14
Participants___________________________________________________ 14
Measures____________________________________________________ 16
General Marital Satisfaction_________________________________ 16
General Marital Conflict____________________________________ 16
Interparental Conflict______________________________________ 17
Child Behaviour___________________________________________ 18
Procedure____________________________________________________ 19
Contributions_________________________________________________ 20
Results____________________________________________________________ 21
Data Checking and Diagnostics___________________________________21
Descriptive Data______________________________________________ 21
Prediction of Child Difficulty____________________________________ 23
Validity of the Parent Problem Checklist____________________________26
Clinical Cut-offs for the PPC Problem Scale_________________________ 28
Clinical Cut-offs for the PPC Extent Scale__________________________ 30
Factor Structure- Problem Scale__________________________________ 31
Factor Structure- Extent Scale____________________________________ 33
Discussion_________________________________________________________ 36
Parenting Conflict in a Community Sample________________________ 36
Prediction of Child Difficulty___________________________________ 39
Clinical Cut-offs_____________________________________________ 40
Validity of the Parent Problem Checklist__________________________ 42
Factor Structure of the Parent Problem Checklist____________________ 43
Limitations and Future Recommendations_________________________ 44
Conclusions_________________________________________________ 47
References_________________________________________________________ 48
Appendix A: The Questionnaires _______________________________________ 53
Appendix B: SPSS syntax and output____________________________________ 62
List of Tables
Table 1. Participant Demographics______________________________________ 15
Table 2. Means and standard deviations for relationship and child variables______ 22
Table 3. Correlation between marital variables_____________________________ 24
Table 4. Bivariate correlations between child age, child gender, education level of
parent, family income, family structure and the marital and child difficulty
variables___________________________________________________ 25
Table. 5. Hierarchical Regression of demographic, marital and child variables on child
difficulty scores______________________________________________ 26
Table. 6. The relationship between clinical classifications on the RQI and the PPC
Problem Scales______________________________________________ 28
Table 7. Means and standard deviations for scores on the SDQ Subscales according to
clinic and non-clinic parents on the PPC Problem Scale______________ 30
Table 8. Factor Loadings and Communalities (h²) for the Two Factor Solution with
Varimax Rotation on PPC Problem Variables_______________________ 33
Table 9. Factor loadings and Communalities (h²) for the Two Factor Solution with
Varimax Rotation for PPC Extent Variables________________________ 35
The Parent Problem Checklist: Examining the Effects of Parenting Conflict on
Children.
The effect of marital discord on the psychological well-being of children has
been well documented and inter-parental conflict has been recognised as a risk factor
for many child behavioural and emotional problems (Dadds & Powell, 1991; Fincham,
1994; Emery, 1982; Jouriles, Pfiffner & O’Leary, 1988). Understanding the aspects of
the marital relationship that impact children has been limited by the use of the existing
measures of marital functioning that have tended to focus on relationship quality and
satisfaction (Kerig, 1996). Limited research has been conducted on which aspects
within the global concept of marital functioning are detrimental to children, however a
number of studies have found evidence to suggest that marital conflict, and more
specifically conflict regarding child-rearing practices, may contribute more to the
development of child adjustment problems than marital satisfaction or conflict
(Jenkins & Smith, 1991; Jouriles, Murphy & O’Leary, 1989; Zimet & Jacob, 2001).
The parental marital relationship has wide-ranging implications for the well-being of
all family members and thus the effects of marital functioning on children warrants
attention.
Marital Discord and Child Outcomes
Results from several studies suggest that children who witness marital conflict
have an increased vulnerability in many areas of functioning including self-esteem
(Amato, 1986; Bishop & Ingersoll, 1989), parent-child relationships (Amato, 1986;
Jenkins & Smith, 1991), social functioning (Forehand, McCombs, Long, Brody &
Fauber, 1988), and psychopathology (King, Radpour, Naylor, Segal & Jouriles, 1995;
Turner & Kopiec, 2006). In addition, numerous studies have found a positive
relationship between marital discord and the severity and frequency of child
adjustment problems (Jouriles et al., 1989). Under-control problems such as
aggression and conduct problems are the most commonly reported difficulties
experienced by children exposed to marital conflict, with some studies suggesting this
effect is particularly evident for boys (Jenkins & Smith, 1991; Jouriles et al., 1988).
For example, Porter and O’Leary (1980) found that overt marital hostility was
positively related to behaviour problems in boys, but was not predictive of behaviour
problems in girls. However, other studies have found evidence of the predictive effect
of marital discord on behaviour problems for both genders. For example, Jouriles et al.
(1988) assessed marital conflict, parenting and toddler conduct problems in a nonclinic sample of mothers from intact marriages and their children. They found that
both general marital discord and exposure to inter-parental conflict were positively
related to observed child misbehaviour and mother reports of deviance for boys and
girls. In addition, Dadds and Powell (1991) found that mothers’ perceptions of marital
conflict predicted aggression for both boys and girls in clinic referred and non-clinic
samples. Despite some inconsistencies, the research overwhelmingly indicates
evidence that marital discord is a factor contributing to child adjustment problems.
In a longitudinal study Ingoldsby, Shaw, Owens and Winslow (1999) found
that over a three-year time span, rates of inter-parental conflict were positively
correlated with both concurrent and later behaviour problems as rated by both mothers
and fathers. Additionally, Harrist and Ainslie (1998) found that marital conflict was a
significant predictor of poorer quality parent-child relationships, which in turn
predicted higher levels of aggression in children. Furthermore, Turner and Kopiec
(2006) found that exposure to marital conflict as a child greatly increased the
likelihood of later developing major depressive disorder and alcohol abuse or
dependency disorders. In addition, they found that this association also correlated to
problems with later romantic relationships and reduced self-esteem; suggesting that
the effects of exposure to marital discord as a child are destructive in both the short
and long term.
In his seminal research into the effects of inter-parental conflict on children,
Emery (1982) concluded that despite some inconsistencies and differing
methodologies, there is agreement among researchers and strong evidence for the
detrimental effects of marital conflict on the development of adjustment problems in
children. Emery (1982) also suggests that parents embroiled in spousal conflict are
more likely to be distracted, less involved, inconsistent with discipline and are poorer
models for their children. Furthermore, research suggests that there is a negative
relationship between marital discord and effective parenting behaviour. Krishnakumar
and Buehler (2000) conducted a meta-analytic review of 39 studies concerned with
marital conflict and parenting behaviours. They concluded that marital conflict
impacts most areas of parenting and those parents engaged in conflict have a tendency
to become preoccupied with their relationship problems, and display diminished
parenting behaviours especially in areas of harsh discipline and acceptance.
Research also suggests that the effects of marital discord on children are
evident regardless of family structure. Studies that address the effects of divorce on
children have overwhelmingly concluded that exposure to marital conflict rather than
the disintegration of the family unit is the primary cause of adjustment problems in
children of divorced parents (Forehand et al, 1988; Grych & Fincham, 1990).
Forehand et al. (1988) investigated post-divorce functioning of adolescents and the
effects of inter-parental conflict in both divorced and intact families. They found that
there was no effect of marital status on child functioning but there was strong
evidence that inter-parental conflict was correlated with both deficits in social
functioning and higher levels of social withdrawal behaviour. Children from high
conflict homes regardless of marital status were found to be significantly impaired in
areas of social functioning compared to children from low conflict families. In
addition, Jenkins and Smith (1991) assessed the factors of parental marital
relationships that influence the likelihood of children developing behavioural and
emotional problems. They found that parental conflict was a significant predictor of
children’s emotional and behavioural problems as rated by mothers, fathers and the
children. Furthermore, they found that disagreement over child-rearing issues was
predictive of child behaviour problems as reported by mothers and fathers. These
findings implicate exposure to parental discord rather than marital or family status as
the most significant determinant of child adjustment problems. In sum, these studies
show evidence of the relationship between marital discord and negative child
outcomes.
Marital Quality vs Marital Discord.
Whilst research shows considerable support for the relationship between
marital discord and the development of behaviour problems in children, some studies
have produced inconsistent data. One explanation for these inconsistencies is that
many early studies relied on measures of marital quality or marital satisfaction, rather
than marital conflict (Emery, 1982; Emery & O’Leary, 1984; Jenkins & Smith, 1991).
These measures provide an overall score of marital adjustment across various aspects
of marital functioning including satisfaction, finances, household chores, leisure
pursuits and sexual relations (Jouriles, Murphy et al., 1991). In his comprehensive
review of the research, Emery (1982) assessed previous studies and noted the
considerable limitation of relying on assessment of marital functioning using global
measures of marital satisfaction. It has been suggested that global measures of marital
satisfaction are simply too broad and do not adequately consider the context or
characteristics of the parental relationship or the marital discord that impacts children
(Stallman, Morawska & Sanders, submitted for publication).
The nature and context of the marital problems may have differing effects on
children and it is important to determine the specific dimensions of the marital
relationship that are related to negative child outcomes (Cummings & Davies, 2002).
Further research by Emery and others has suggested that measuring conflict produces
more relevant and accurate data reflective of the association between marital
functioning and child behaviour problems than a measure of global marital
satisfaction. Porter and O’Leary (1980) found that overt marital conflict was a better
predictor of behaviour problems in boys than marital satisfaction. Additionally,
Jouriles, et al. (1988) found that marital conflict was associated more with
observations of child deviance and with mothers’ reports of conduct problems than
general marital satisfaction. These findings have led some to suggest that the nature of
conflict between parents may be the primary influencing factor in the development of
adjustment problems (Grych & Fincham, 1990; Jouriles, Murphy et al., 1991). Hence,
many researchers argue that exposure to marital conflict is one of the most robust
factors contributing to adjustment problems in children, and is a stronger predictor of
child adjustment problems than marital satisfaction (Davies, Sturge-Apple, Winter,
Cummings & Farrell, 2006; Grych & Fincham, 1990). These studies highlight the
benefit of assessing marital conflict over and above the use of global measures of
marital satisfaction to examine the influence of the parental relationship on the
development of behavioural and emotional problems in children.
Parental Disagreements about Child-Rearing
The relationship between marital functioning and child adjustment problems
has been established by many studies however, these studies have often tended to rely
on broad measures of marital conflict or adjustment (Emery, 1982; Grych & Fincham,
1990; Stallman et al., submitted for publication). Researchers have suggested that
whilst associations have been found between marital discord and problem child
behaviour the correlations are relatively weak due to the lack of specificity of the
measures of marital functioning (Jouriles, Murphy et al., 1991). Jouriles, Murphy et al.
(1991) report general magnitudes of the relationship between marital conflict and
problem behaviour of between .25 and .45 for clinic referred children and .10 to .25
for non-clinic samples. This weak association between marital discord and child
problems has led some researchers to suggest that that there may be more specific
factors within the concept of marital quality and functioning that are responsible for
the potentially detrimental relationship between marital discord and child adjustment
problems (Jouriles, Murphy et al., 1991). Likewise, conflict can be a normal part of
many relationships and occurs in most marriages at some point, yet not all children
experience adjustment problems (Fincham, Grych & Osborne, 1994). This
observation gives further support for the suggestion that specific factors of marital
functioning may be more important than others in determining the effects of marital
discord on children.
Additionally, marital satisfaction or quality has been shown to be related to
other factors that influence child adjustment (such as the parent child-relationship and
children’s self-esteem) and as such may only provide indirect support for the
relationship between marital discord and child adjustment problems (Bishop &
Ingersoll, 1989; Grych & Fincham, 1990). Further, it has been suggested that using
measures that specifically target conflict surrounding parenting issues may provide a
clearer and more direct understanding of the link between marital conflict and
behaviour problems in children (Jouriles, Murphy et al., 1991; Snyder, Klein,
Gdowski, Faulstich & LaCombe, 1988). Taken together these findings suggest that
there may be specific types of conflict that are more detrimental to the psychological
well-being of children.
An increasing number of studies have shown that conflict specific to parenting
may be more detrimental than other sources of conflict that do not involve the child
(Jouriles, Murphy et al., 1991). Grych and Fincham (1990) argue that parental conflict
that is frequent, poorly resolved, intense and child-related is more damaging to the
children who witness these arguments than those conflicts which are resolved
amicably and do not involve child related topics regardless of frequency. Similarly,
Snyder et al. (1988) found that spousal conflict over child-rearing issues was
significantly related to parental reports of behavioural and emotional problems with
their children. In addition, they found no relationship between children’s emotional
and behavioural difficulties and measures of global marital distress and conflict that
was not related to children, suggesting evidence for the specificity of parental
disagreements about child-rearing and the development of adjustment problems.
Moreover, Block, Block and Morrison (1981) found that for boys, disagreement over
parenting issues was predictive of under control problems and lower levels of ego
resiliency reflected by lower scores on resourcefulness, verbal ability, ownership of
feelings and actions, task orientation and intellectual aptitude.
In further support of increasing the specificity of marital assessment in relation
to the development of child adjustment problems, Jouriles, Murphy et al. (1991) found
evidence that parental disagreement over child-rearing was a better predictor of child
behaviour problems than global marital adjustment. They examined general marital
disagreements, child related disagreements and children’s exposure to marital conflict
in relation to child behaviour problems in a sample of preschool aged boys. They
found that conflict specific to child-rearing was a better predictors of boys’ behaviour
problems and correlated significantly with a greater number of behaviour problems
than either general marital adjustment or global marital conflict that did not involve
children. Further, they found that child-rearing disagreements were significantly
correlated with sneaky behaviour, physically hurting others, annoying and teasing
others, abusing property, seeking trouble and disobeying rules and instructions even
after accounting for exposure to conflict. In contrast, they found that marital conflict
predicted only being rude and using dirty language when controlling for the effects of
exposure to child-rearing conflict. Therefore, it can be seen that marital conflict
specific to child-rearing may be more damaging to the development of children and
potentially explains more of the variance in childhood problems than general marital
conflict or marital dissatisfaction. Furthermore, it can be suggested that conflict
regarding child-rearing may be a better predictor of problem behaviour in children
than marital quality or adjustment. For that reason, it would beneficial to use measures
that include child-rearing conflict when assessing the relationship between marital
functioning and children’s behaviour problems, compared to using only simple
measures of marital satisfaction or quality. Assessment of child-rearing conflict may
lead to a better understanding of the relationship between marital functioning and
child behaviour problems. Additionally, measures of conflict specific to child-rearing
could be beneficial from a clinical perspective as they may be used to highlight areas
of difficulty and family functioning issues, that can guide the development and
implementation of effective interventions.
Clinic vs Non-Clinic Samples
Research involving families has found that reports of child behaviour and
emotional problems tend to covary with reports of marital quality, marital conflict and
disagreement over child-rearing practices. Notably, researchers have also found that
the size of the correlation tends to vary depending on the type of sample used in the
study (Jouriles, Bourg & Farris, 1991). In particular, the use of clinic-referred
participants in a sample tends to result in stronger associations than the use of nonclinic samples. Despite the considerable evidence regarding parental discord and child
behaviour problems in clinical samples, many studies have found inconsistencies
when using non-clinic referred children (Emery and O’Leary, 1984). There has also
been a tendency for researchers to rely on clinic-referred samples and to date the
impact of marital discord, and particularly conflict regarding parenting issues on
children, using community samples remains unclear (Emery & O’Leary, 1984).
Emery and O’Leary (1984) assessed the effects of marital discord on child
behaviour problems in a non-clinic sample of primary school aged children. They
found only a weak relationship between mother’s evaluations of their marital
relationship and children’s behaviour problems based on teacher reports of school
based behaviour and mother reports of children’s behaviour. Jouriles et al. (1988)
found that marital conflict was correlated with observed toddler deviance and
maternal reports of conduct problems in their non-clinic sample, but only moderate
correlations were observed. However, it should be noted that only measures of marital
satisfaction and global marital conflict where used in both studies and that neither
study included a measure of conflict regarding child-rearing practices.
In contrast, Jouriles, Murphy et al. (1991) found that general marital
disagreement and exposure to marital conflict were only slightly correlated to child
behaviour problems (.15 and .22 respectively) whereas child related disagreement was
a much better predictor of behaviour problems (.35). Additionally, Dadds and Powell
(1991) found that parenting problems were a significant predictor of aggression in
boys and girls from both clinic and non-clinic samples although this relationship was
stronger for the clinic sample. Similarly, Jouriles, Bourg and Farris (1991) found that
reports of marital adjustment were more strongly associated with reports of child
behaviour problems in families of clinic-referred children compared to families of
non-clinic referred children. In sum, these studies highlight the need for further
research requiring focus on conflict regarding child-rearing practices and the use of
community samples to increase our understanding of the factors that contribute to the
relationship between marital functioning and negative child outcomes.
The Parent Problem Checklist: A Measure of Parent Conflict
Despite the evidence that conflict specific to parenting is more strongly
associated with negative child outcomes, there are very few measures that directly
assess parenting disagreement, and many studies still rely on measures of relationship
conflict and satisfaction. Many of the existing measures of parenting conflict have
limitations that threaten their utility in research and clinical practice. For example, the
Interparental Conflict Questionnaire (IPQ; Forehand & McCombs, 1989) is a 20 item
scale designed to assess conflict regarding both spouse (finance, sexual relations etc)
or child related (chores, discipline) issues in terms of frequency, intensity, whether the
conflict was witnessed by the child and how often discussion of the topic led to
arguments. Forehand and McCombs (1989) found that despite the measure having
sound face validity, it does not have well established test-retest reliability with 5 out
of 8 subscales having reliabilities of less than .41. On the child related issues subscale,
the measure could only differentiate between married and divorced parents with
regards to how often issues were discussed, as would be expected after the dissolution
of a relationship and subsequently less contact between parents. The IPQ could not
differentiate between divorced and married couples on all other factors of the child
subscale including how often a discussion resulted in an argument, intensity of
arguments and if arguments were witnessed by the children. The O’Leary-Porter
Scale (OPS; Porter & O’Leary, 1980) was devised to examine conflict style and
disagreement in couples. It is a 20 item scale (containing only 9 items that are scored)
that assesses how often differing forms of conflict such as sarcasm and verbal
aggression, are witnessed by the children. Neither of these scales contains clinical cutoffs or measures whether issues are perceived as problematic by the parents.
In contrast, the Parent Problem Checklist (PPC; Dadds & Powell, 1991) was
devised in an effort to clarify the individual contributions to child adjustment
problems made by parenting conflict. Compared to previous measures of marital
conflict, the PPC measures parent conflict in terms of parent’s ability to agree and cooperate when performing parenting duties within their families. The PPC consist of 16
items to which parents indicate the existence of problems within their families over
the last month. This produces an index of the number of disagreements and is
reflected by a score on the Problem Scale. If the item has been a problem, the parents
then indicate the intensity of the problem which is reflected by a score on the Extent
scale. Dadds and Powell (1991) state that 6 of the items have been designed to
measure conflict regarding rules and disciplining misbehaviour, 6 items concentrate
on overt conflict relating to child-rearing practices and 4 items measure the extent to
which the parents undermine their partners relationship with the children.
The PPC displays various advantages over other currently available measures
of marital conflict. In addition to addressing child-rearing issues, the PPC displays
adequate psychometric properties, the ability to distinguish between clinically
distressed and non-distressed couples and at only 16 items is shorter in length than
most measures. Studies of the PPC have found support for the measure and provide
evidence of its sound psychometric properties. Dadds and Powell (1991) found that
parent conflict as measured by the PPC was a better predictor of aggression in
children than the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS; Spanier, 1972) a widely used and
well established measure of marital conflict. They also reported moderate internal
consistency for the PPC (α = .70) and high test-retest reliability (r = .90). Bayer,
Sanson and Hemphill (2006) found that parent stress as measured by a combination of
the PPC, the DAS and others, was predictive of internalising problems in children and
reported high internal consistency (α = .97) of the PPC for their sample. Furthermore,
Stallman et al. (submitted for publication) investigated the psychometric properties of
the PPC using a sample of clinic referred families and found further evidence of high
internal consistency (α = .82).
Although there is some evidence for the utility of the PPC, it has not been
widely examined and there is some confusion over the scale’s factor structure. Dadds
and Powell (1991) suggest that the PPC is a unidimensional measure of discipline
disagreement, whereas Stallman et al. (submitted for publication) provide evidence of
a three factor model which includes child care and family processes factors in addition
to a discipline factor. Furthermore, the Extent Scale of the PPC has not been
adequately evaluated and there is only limited evidence of a clinical cut-off for Extent
Scale (Stallman et al., submitted for publication). Whilst there is considerable
evidence of the need for brief measures of parent conflict such as the PPC, it is only
with evaluation that the properties of such measures may be understood. Therefore
more investigation of the properties of the PPC to further establish the validity and
reliability of the measure as well as examine the factor structure would be useful to
both research and clinical practice.
Aims of the present study
The purpose of the present study is to examine the association between marital
adjustment, parental disagreement over child-rearing related topics and child
emotional and behavioural problems in a community sample. In reviewing the current
empirical data available on this topic it was concluded that there were some
limitations that needed to be addressed. Previous studies have tended to use clinicreferred samples rather than community samples to assess marital functioning and
child problems and when non-clinic samples have been used, the findings have been
inconsistent (Emery, 1982; Emery & O’Leary, 1984). This may be due to the reliance
on measures of marital satisfaction and adjustment rather than measures of
relationship conflict. Many previous studies measure only marital satisfaction and
quality, however current research suggests that measuring conflict specific to childrearing topics may be more beneficial in understanding the role of marital functioning
in the development of child behaviour and emotional problems (Jouriles, Murphy et
al., 1991; Snyder et al., 1988). Therefore, the present study aims to address the
inconsistencies in the literature surrounding the effects of parent conflict on children
and to gain a measure of parent conflict in a community sample. Given the
methodological considerations mentioned above, the aims of the present study are
threefold. Firstly, the current study aims to gain a measure of parenting conflict and
children’s behavioural and emotional problems in a non-clinic referred community
sample. Secondly, the current study aims to examine the individual contribution of
conflict specific to child-rearing issues to the prediction of child problems. Finally this
study aims to further validate the psychometric properties and examine the factor
structure of the Parent Problem Checklist and further examine the validity of the
measure by comparing it to well established measures of marital adjustment and
relationship quality.
Summary of Hypotheses
1. It was expected that marital conflict, marital dissatisfaction and parenting
conflict would be correlated with child behaviour and emotional difficulties.
Specifically, it was predicted that lower levels of marital functioning would be
associated with higher scores on the child difficulty scale.
2. It was predicted that child-rearing disagreements would contribute more to the
prediction of child difficulty than either general marital conflict or relationship
satisfaction.
Method
Participants
Participants in this study were 200 parents with a target child between the ages
of 2 and 16 years (M = 8.69 years, SD = 3.45). Of these participants, there were 186
mothers (93%), 10 fathers (5%), 2 step-mothers (1%), 1 step-father (0.5%) and 1
foster mother (0.5%). Parents were recruited through advertisements in school
newsletters and all parents participated on a voluntary basis. The children comprised
of 112 boys (56%) and 88 girls (44%). In view of the research questions, parents were
required to be in a relationship and were sharing the responsibility of parenting with
their partner. The sample was primarily comprised of Caucasian families (93 %) with
smaller proportions of other ethnic groups (2.5% Asian, 0.5% Aboriginal or Torres
Straight Islander, and 4% did not indicate their ethnicity).
The majority (83%) of children lived with both biological or adoptive parents,
15% lived with one step-parent and one biological or adoptive parent and 2% did not
respond. The majority of parents were from intact marriages (81.5%); with a smaller
proportion in a de-facto relationship (18.5%). In addition 90.5% of the parents in the
sample felt at least moderately capable in their role as parent, 75% felt at least
moderately supported in their role as parents and 87.5% felt at least moderately
supported by their partner in their parenting role. Table 1 displays information about
the educational level attained by parents and their family income brackets.
Table 1. Participant Demographics
Variable
Education level of Respondent Less than year 10
Family Income
Percent*
2.5
Year 10/11
17.0
Year 12
13.0
Trade/Apprenticeship
3.0
TAFE/College
23.0
University Degree
41.5
Less than $25,000 pa
2.5
$25,001 - $75,000 pa
44.0
$75,001 - $150,000 pa 45.0
Over $150,001 pa
*1% of parents did not complete family income details.
7.5
Measures
General Marital Satisfaction: The Relationship Quality Index (RQI; Norton,
1983) is a widely used index of global marital satisfaction and quality that has
excellent internal consistency and can discriminate between clinic and non-clinic
couples. In the present sample, the scale was found to have a high level of internal
consistency (α = .95). The RQI is comprised of 6 items that measure global
relationship satisfaction. The first 5 items assesses relationship strength, stability and
satisfaction on a 7 point scale ranging from (1) very strongly disagree to (7) very
strongly agree. The final item assesses overall happiness of the relationship on a 10
point scale ranging from unhappy (1), to perfectly happy (10). The measure generates
a total score from 6 to 45, with a clinical cut-off of 29 or less indicating a clinically
elevated level of dissatisfaction exists in the relationship. The index is strongly
correlated with the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1979).
General Marital Conflict: The Spanier Dyadic Adjustment Scale-Consensus
Subscale (DAS-CS; Spanier, 1976) assesses disagreement across various areas of the
relationship but does not contain any items that assess disagreement over child-rearing.
It is a widely used measure of relationship quality and conflict, and has been reported
to be used in more than 1000 studies within the first 10 years of its development
(Graham, Liu & Jeziorski, 2006) The DAS-CS contains 15 items that assess
agreement or disagreement on topics that are common to most relationships including
finance, religion, sexual relations, shared goals, career decisions, household chores
and leisure time. Each item is rated on a 6 point scale ranging from (5) always agree
to (0) always disagree. The scale creates an overall score of between 0 and 75 and can
reliably distinguish between distressed and non-distressed couples.
In the original paper, Spanier (1976) reported a reliability of .90 for the
Consensus Subscale and more recently a meta-analysis of 39 studies showed the
measure to have good internal consistency (α = .87). In the present sample the scale
displayed high internal consistency (α = .91). The full DAS has also been shown to
produce stable results across gender, culture and sexual orientation and can reliably
discriminate between distressed and non-distressed couples (Graham, Liu & Jeziorski,
2006).
Interparental Conflict: The Parent Problem Checklist (PPC; Dadds & Powell,
1991) is a 16 item questionnaire measuring conflict between parents specifically
relating to child-rearing practices and their abilities to co-operate as parents, including
disagreement over household rules, discipline and inconsistency between parents. Six
items assess the occurrence of interparental disagreement regarding rules and
discipline, 6 items target overt conflict over parenting practices and 4 items assess
whether parents undermine each other in the presence of their children.
For each of the items, parents report whether or not the issue has been a
problem over the last 4 weeks by answering either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. This generates a
score on the Problem Scale which indicates the number of areas in which the parents
are experiencing conflict. The Problem Scale generates a score ranging from 0 to16,
with a clinical cut-off of 5 (Dadds & Powell, 1991). Dadds and Powell reported the
Problem Scale to have good internal consistency (α = .70) and high test-retest
reliability (r = .90). The internal consistency for the current sample was high (α = .85).
For each issue that parents identify as problematic they are also asked to rate
the extent to which each issue has caused difficulty between themselves and their
partners. Extent is measured on a 7 point scale ranging from (1) not at all to (7) very
much, with scores on the extent scale ranging from 15 to 105. Stallman et al.
(submitted for publication) reported good internal consistency for the Problem Scale
(α = .82) and high internal consistency for the Extent Scale (α = .89). In the present
sample, the Extent Scale displayed high internal consistency (α = .94). The PPC also
has concurrent validity with the DAS (Bayer, Sanson & Hemphill, 2006).
Child Behaviour: Child behaviour was assessed using the Strengths and
Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997), a screening measure that is used
to identify children’s emotional and behavioural problems over the previous 6 months.
The measure consists of 25 items that address 5 factors; hyperactivity, conduct
problems, emotional symptoms, pro-social behaviour and peer problems, and 5 items
that assess the impact of the problems on various aspects of the child’s life. Each of
the 5 subscales is measured by 5 items and responses are measured using a 3-point
scale. Parents respond according to how correct they feel each statement is for their
child and options are (0) not true, (1) somewhat true and (2) certainly true. The scale
includes some reverse scored items.
A total difficulties score is produced by summing all of the deficit scores
together excluding pro-social behaviour, giving a total score ranging from 0 to 40. A
total impact score is generated by the scores on the 5 impact questions, all of which
are measured on a 4 point scale. These include 3 items to which parents respond
according to how much of an effect the problems have on the child and their home life,
friendships, learning and leisure, such as “Do the difficulties put a burden on you or
the family as a whole?” and “Do these difficulties upset or distress your child?”.
Scores on these items range from ‘not at all’ to ‘a great deal’. In addition there is one
item on which parents report how long the difficulties have been occurring, ranging
from ‘less than a month’ to ‘over a year’ and one item asking whether or not they feel
the child has difficulties with emotions, concentration, behaviour or socialisation and
to what extent, ranging from ‘no’ to ‘yes-severe difficulties’.
The SDQ has been shown to reliably discriminate between clinic and nonclinic children with a cut-off for the normal range of 13 out of 40. Scores of 14 to 16
indicate the child is borderline and a score of 17 or more indicates clinically elevated
difficulty. Further, the SDQ has been found to correlate highly with the Child
Behaviour Checklist showing evidence of concurrent validity (CBCL; Achenbach,
1991 cited in Goodman, 1997). The CBCL is a benchmark measure however the SDQ
has the considerable advantage of being substantially shorter in length and is freely
available (Goodman, 1997). The SDQ has well established reliability and validity, and
Australian data shows moderate to good internal consistency for each subscale
(ranging from α = 0.67 to α = 0.80) and total difficulties scores (α = 0.73) (Mellor,
2005). The SDQ has also been found to have good external validity shown by
correlations between the SDQ and diagnostic status as measured by a recent
Australian study (Hawes & Dadds, 2004). The scale displayed moderate internal
consistency in the present sample (α = .69).
Procedure
Parents were recruited for the study through advertisements in their children’s
school newsletters. Australian schools with a publicly available email address were
contacted and asked to include a notice of the study in the school newsletter. This
email to the schools contained a brief outline of the study and a draft notice that could
be used in the school newsletter containing the website address where an online
version of the study was available along with contact details if parents required
additional information.
The website contained information which advised the parents of the study’s
aim to examine the challenges faced by parents and the impacts these challenges
might have on their children. The website also advised parents of the voluntary and
confidential nature of their participation and the ethical clearance and consideration
given to the project. Following the initial page was an online consent form which
parents were asked to complete before being able to proceed to the questionnaires.
Parents then completed the questionnaires along with a family background
questionnaire that asked demographic questions including age, gender, family
structure and status, educational attainment, employment status and income bracket.
Once the questionnaires were completed, parents were asked to click the submit icon
and the information was then stored.
A small number of participants required hard copies of the questionnaires to
be posted to them. These hard copies contained the same cover letter and consent
form found on the website as well as paper and pen versions of all the measures and
family background questionnaire. Once these were completed, parents posted the
questionnaires back to the Parenting and Family Support Centre in the reply-paid
envelopes they were provided with. Once the completed surveys were returned, the
information was keyed onto the website to be included for statistical analysis.
Contributions
My supervisor, Dr Alina Morawska, was responsible for the development of
the present study’s aims, design and procedure in accordance with the needs of the
Parenting and Family Support Centre at the University of Queensland. The selection
of measures to include in the study was a collaboration between my supervisor and
myself. The recruitment of participants and collection of data was conducted by me.
The statistical analysis was done primarily by me with guidance from my supervisor.
Results
Data Checking and Diagnostics
Before conducting formal analyses, the data was checked for any errors and
missing values. Eight cases were found to have more than 25% of items missing and
were therefore excluded from the analyses. A further 10 cases had responded that they
were either in a single parent family, were divorced or widowed and in view of the
research question were also removed from the analyses giving a final N = 200. A
small number of respondents had values missing for some variables; however,
Missing Values Analysis showed no systematic pattern among responses.
Replacement of values with the item means did not change the substantive
interpretation of the results. For ease of comparison and interpretation the data set
used in the following analyses contains missing values replaced with the mean scores
for each item in the questionnaire. There were no outliers detected in the data set. All
analyses were conducted using SPSS for windows version 15.0.
Descriptive Data
Table 2 displays the means and standard deviations for the measures of
relationship satisfaction and adjustment, parenting problems and child problems.
Table 2. Means and standard deviations for the parent relationship and child variables.
X
SD
PPC Problem Scale
5.72
4.05
PPC Extent Scale
42.88
23.86
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
18.48
5.61
Dyadic Adjustment Scale- Consensus Subscale
52.38
12.71
Relationship Quality Index
33.01
10.70
Participants were compared for differences across variables including child
gender, income of parents, respondent’s education level and family structure. An
independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the SDQ scores for male and
female children. There was no significant difference in scores for male children (M =
11.72, SD = 6.6) and female children (M = 11.0, SD = 6.14; t(187) = .77, p >.05),
suggesting that there was no difference in behavioural or emotional difficulty
according to gender of the child.
One-way analysis of variance showed that there was no significant differences
between scores of emotional and behaviour difficulty as measured by the SDQ for
family income (F(3,183) = 2.01, p > .05). Parents were then compared for differences
across education levels. Parents indicated their level of educational achievement in the
demographic component of the questionnaire and from this data the respondents were
classified into two separate groups; those with university degrees and those with
either high school or trade qualification. A second one-way analysis of variance found
there was a significant difference in scores on the SDQ for respondents education
when comparing high school or trade qualifications with tertiary education (F(1,187)
= 3.93, p < .05). Respondents with lower educational qualifications (M = 12.66, SD =
6.50) did report higher scores for their children on the SDQ than those with tertiary
qualifications (M = 10.74, SD = 6.27).
A final one-way analysis of variance found there was a significant difference
in scores on the SDQ according to family structure (F(1,183) = 9.14, p < .01)
suggesting that children in step-families (M = 14.62, SD = 6.85) reported
significantly higher scores on the SDQ than families with an original structure (M =
10.81, SD = 6.11). However, these results should be interpreted with caution given the
unequal sample sizes of the groups, with original family structure (n=156) greatly
overrepresented compared to step-families (n= 29).
Prediction of Child Difficulty
Zero-order correlations were firstly examined to investigate the relationships
between the measures. These are displayed in Table 3. Inspection of the zero-order
correlations revealed that scores on the PPC Extent Scale and PPC Problem Scale
showed evidence of multicollinearity (r = .93). Due to the dichotomous nature of the
Problem Scale, the PPC Extent Scale was used as the measure of parenting conflict in
the following regression analysis. Further investigation found that scores on the PPC
Problem Scale and PPC Extent scale were significantly related to scores on the SDQ,
DAS-CS and RQI. Higher scores on the PPC Problem Scale and PPC Extent scale
were associated with higher scores on the SDQ and lower scores on the RQI and
DAS-CS. Additionally, it was revealed that there was a significant positive
relationship between scores on the RQI and scores on the DAS-CS such that higher
marital satisfaction was related to less marital conflict. The moderate positive
correlation is in accordance with previous studies that have found strong positive
associations (r = .86; Spanier; 1976) between the two measures although the
association is weaker in this sample. There was a weak negative association between
scores on the DAS-CS and the SDQ but no significant relationship was found between
scores on the RQI and scores on the SDQ.
Table 3. Correlation between marital variablesª
PPC
Problem
PPC Problem Scale
PPC Extent Scale
SDQ
PPC
Extent
.93**
SDQ
DAS-CS
RQI
.28**
-.65**
-.49**
.49**
-.67**
-.50**
-.13*
-.08
DAS-CS
.57**
RQI
ªPPC = Parent Problem Checklist; SDQ = Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire;
DAS-CS = Dyadic Adjustment Scale-Consensus Subscale; RQI = Relationship
Quality Index
** p < .01 *p < .05
For all following regression analyses, univariate analysis checks found no
violations of assumptions. Examination of the collinearity diagnostics suggests no
violations of multicollinearity. Inspection of the Normal Probability Plot and the
Scatterplot of the standardized residuals suggests no major deviations from normality.
A hierarchical multiple regression was performed to test the hypothesis that
scores on the PPC would be better predictors of child difficulty than either the RQI or
the DAS-CS over and above the effects of the child’s age, the child’s gender,
educational attainment of the respondent, family structure and family income level.
No multivariate outliers were found. Child age, child gender, family structure, family
income and respondents’ education level were entered at the first step and the
relationship scales were all entered at the second step. The bivariate correlations
between the variables are shown in table 4.
Table 4. Bivariate correlations between child age, child gender, education level of
parent, family income, family structure and the marital and child difficulty variablesª
PPC
PPC
Extent
DAS-CS
RQI
SDQ
Child
Age
Child
Gender
Education
Family
Income
Family
structure
DASCS
RQI
SDQ
Age
Gender
Education
Income
Structure
-.67**
-.50**
.49**
-.29*
-.16*
.03
.07
.09
.57**
-.13*
.06
-.07
.06
-.06
.14*
-.08
.03
-.03
.03
-.09
.09
.04
.01
-.21**
-.15*
.27**
.14*
-.11
.14*
.17*
-.04
.02
-.06
.19**
-.10
ªPPC = Parent Problem Checklist; SDQ = Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire;
DAS-CS = Dyadic Adjustment Scale- Consensus Subscale; RQI = Relationship
Quality Index
** p < .01 *p < .05
At step 1 there was no significant association between child age, child gender,
education, family structure or family income and scores on the SDQ, with the
predictors accounting for 12% of the variance in child behavior, R = .34, R² = .12,
F(5, 47) = 1.1, p > .05. At step 2 the three relationship scales added significantly to
the explained variance, R = .70, R² change = .39, F(8, 39) = 4.71, p > .001. Together
the variables accounted for 49% of the variability in SDQ scores. Examination of the
coefficients table showed there are only two variables that make a significant
-.01
contribution to the prediction of SDQ scores. As shown in Table 5, the PPC Extent
Scale was the most important variable accounting for 35% of the variance in SDQ
scores with the DAS-CS accounting for a further 7.7% of the variance in SDQ scores.
These results suggest that parent conflict is the most important of the measured
marital factors in predicting child difficulty.
Table 5. Hierarchical Regression of demographic, marital and child variables on child
difficulty scores.
r
Beta (ß)
.97
t
df(39)
5.18**
PPC Extent
.49**
DAS-CS
sr²
.35
-.13*
.44
2.44*
.08
RQI
-.08
.14
.98
.01
Child Age
.04
.26
2.02
.05
Child Gender
.01
.16
1.33
.02
Education
-.21**
-.20
-1.67
.04
Income
-.15*
-.18
-1.48
.03
Family Structure
.27**
.04
.35
.001
ªPPC = Parent Problem Checklist; SDQ = Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire;
DAS-CS = Dyadic Adjustment Scale- Consensus Subscale; RQI = Relationship
Quality Index
** p < .01 *p<.05
Validity of the Parent Problem Checklist
To inspect the validity of the PPC in a community sample, correlations of the
Problem and Extent scales with well established measures of child behavioural and
emotional problems (SDQ), relationship satisfaction (RQI) and relationship
adjustment (DAS-CS) were examined, as shown in Table 4. There was a significant
correlation between the Problem Scale and the SDQ such that higher total parenting
conflict as reported by parents was correlated to more child problems. There was a
strong negative relationship between the Problem Scale and DAS-CS such that lower
scores on the Problem Scale were associated with better relationship adjustment.
Furthermore, there was a strong negative relationship between scores on the Problem
Scale and scores on the RQI such that higher scores on the Problem Scale are
associated with less relationship satisfaction.
The PPC Extent Scale displayed a high correlation with the PPC Problem
Scale. It also had a significant negative correlation with relationship satisfaction as
measured by the RQI and the DAS-CS. The Extent Scale was also significantly
correlated to child and emotional problems as measured by the SDQ. Overall, higher
scores on the Extent Scale were associated with more child difficulties, less
relationship satisfaction and lower relationship adjustment.
Additionally, a chi-squared test was performed to examine the association
between clinical levels of parent conflict and clinical levels of marital dissatisfaction.
Examination of the chi-square tests indicates that there were no violations of
assumptions. The continuity correction value was found to be 16.37, p < .001. This
suggests that scores on the RQI are not independent of scores on the PPC Problem
Scale. As seen in Table 6., for parents within the clinical range on the Problem Scale
the majority also scored in the clinical range for the RQI. However, for parents in the
non-clinical range on the Problem Scale, there were similar numbers of parents
reporting in the non-clinical and clinical ranges for the RQI. Additionally, there were
only a small proportion of parents who reported in the non-clinic range for the
Problem Scale but in the clinic range for the RQI. These frequencies were
significantly different from those expected if the two constructs were unrelated but
does highlight that there is not a perfect association between marital satisfaction and
parenting conflict.
Table 6. The relationship between clinical classifications on the RQI and the PPC
Problem Scalesª.
Clinical RQI
Non-clinical RQI
Clinical PPC Problem
Non-clinical PPC Problem
73
47
(41.5%)
(26.7%)
15
41
(8.5%)
(23.3%)
ªPPC Problem = Parenting Problem Checklist- Problem Subscale; RQI = Relationship
Quality Index
Clinical Cut-offs for the PPC Problem Scale.
Findings from previous studies suggest a score of 5 as the clinical cut-off on
the Problem Scale (Dadds & Powell, 1991; Stallman et al., submitted for publication).
The average number of areas that parents reported as problematic was 5.66 for the
current sample. This suggests that the average number of problem areas for the
sample is in the clinical range. A series of one-way analyses of variance were
conducted to determine if parents who reported in the clinical range for the Problem
Scale would display higher total scores for their children on the SDQ, and higher
scores on the subscales of problem behaviour, compared to parents who scored in the
normal range. Analysis showed that there was a significant difference between the
two groups for total scores on the SDQ (F(1,186) = 11.77, p <.001) with parents who
reported in the clinical range for the Problem Scale also reporting higher levels of
child difficulty (M = 19.48, SD = 5.49) than parents in the non-clinical range (M =
16.78, SD = 5.32).
Similarly, it was found that parents who scored in the clinical range for the
Problem Scale also reported significantly higher scores for their children on the
Emotional Sensitivity Subscale F(1,184) = 13.82, p < .001, the Conduct Problems
Subscale F(1,183) = 21.18, p < .001 and the Hyperactivity Subscale F(1,183) = 8.54,
p < .01, than parents in the normal range of problem areas. They also reported
significantly lower scores on pro-social behaviour than parents in the normal range
F(1,181) = 16.23, p < .001. However, there was no significant difference between
reports of children’s peer problems for parents in the clinical range on the Problem
Scale compared to parents in the normal range, F(1,183) = 2.55, p > .05. Means and
standard deviations for the subscale scores are displayed in Table 7. These results
indicate that parents who reported a number of parenting problem areas in the clinical
range also reported their children are displaying significantly more problem
behaviours in the areas of hyperactivity, conduct problems and emotional sensitivity
than parents in the normal range on the Problem Scale. Furthermore, parents who
reported in the clinical range for the Problem Scale also reported their children
displayed less positive behaviour than parents in the normal range. These results
indicate that the PPC Problem Scale can discriminate between clinic and non-clinic
children according to the SDQ.
Table 7. Means and standard deviations for scores on the SDQ Subscalesª according
to clinic and non-clinic parents on the PPC Problem Scale
Clinical Range Non-Clinical Range
M (SD)
M (SD)
Emotional Sensitivity Subscale
3.08 (2.10)
1.96 (2.0)
Conduct Problems Subscale
2.85 (1.96)
1.63 (1.62)
Hyperactivity Subscale
4.61 (2.72)
3.47 (2.56)
Pro-Social Subscale
6.55 (2.32)
7.77 (1.75)
Peer Problems Subscale
2.42 (2.14)
1.96 (1.82)
ªSDQ = Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
Clinical Cut-offs for the PPC Extent Scale
A one-way analysis of variance was conducted to determine if there were
differences in the intensity of problems as measured on the Extent Scale between
parents who reported in the clinical range for the Problem Scale compared to parents
in the normal range. There was a significant difference between the two groups,
F(1,46) = 40.06, p < .001, with parents in the non-clinic range for the Problem Scale
(M = 22.53, SD = 5.31) indicating lower intensity of conflict than parents in the clinic
range (M = 56.10, SD = 22.64). Stallman et al. (submitted for publication) have
suggested that a score two standard deviations or more above the non-clinic group
mean on the Extent Scale may be a useful clinical cut-off and from their sample and
suggest that the cut-off should be a score of 30 or more. The results of the present
study shows evidence to recommend that a score of 30 or more would be effective at
differentiating between clinically elevated scores and those in the normal range.
Factor Structure- Problem Scale
To replicate the proposed three factor structure suggested in Dadds and Powell
(1991) and Stallman et al. (submitted for publication), principal factor extraction was
performed on the 16 items of the PPC Problem Scale using the complete data from
200 parents. Principal components extraction was used prior to estimate number of
factors, presence of outliers, absences of multicollinearity and factorability of the
correlation matrices. Inspection of the correlation matrix revealed the presence of
many coefficients of .3 and above. The Kaiser-Meyer-Oklin value was .86, exceeding
the recommended value of .6 and the Barlett’s Test of Specificity reached statistical
significance, supporting the factorability of the correlation matrix.
The variables were not well defined by the three factor solution and the factor
structure proposed by Stallman et al., (submitted for publication) could not be
replicated. Communality values, as seen in table 8, were low with only 2 of the 16
items exceeding .5. Items were included on a factor if loadings were higher than .40;
where items loaded on to two factors, the largest factor loading was used to determine
placement. For the present case, 4 of the 16 variables did not load on to any of the
three factors which accounted for 36% of the variance.
Examination of the scree plot suggested evidence for a two factor structure for
the variables in the present study. To aid interpretation of the two factors, Varimax
rotation was performed. Two of the 16 variables failed to load at least .40 on either
factor. The two factor structure explained a total of 32.38% of the variance. Removal
of the non-loading items 6 “children preventing parents from being alone” and 11
“parents favouring one child over another”, resulted in a factor structure that
accounted for 35.01% of the variance, with the first factor termed ‘Discipline
Disagreement’ contributing 19.34% of the variance and the second factor labelled
‘Child-Care Disagreement’ contributing 15.68% of the variance. Table 8 displays the
loadings of variables on factors, and communalities. For ease of interpretation
variables are grouped and ordered according to the size of loading. It is suggested that
the first factor is mainly related to disagreement over discipline and the second factor
is related to disagreement over child-care. However, item 13 “Disagreements over
who should discipline the children” would seem to be a discipline item but only loads
on the child-care factor which suggests some inconsistency in the factors. Overall, the
two factor structure is not consistent with previous findings which indicates that the
factor structure of the PPC Problem Scale is somewhat unstable across different
samples.
Table 8. Factor Loadings and Communalities (h²) for the Two Factor Solution with
Varimax Rotation on PPC Problem Variables
Variable
Factor 1
Factor 2
h²
10 Parents undermining each other
.65
.47
1
Disagreement over household rules
.59
.36
2
Disagreement over type of discipline
.59
.38
16 Disagreement over what is problem behaviour
.56
.38
5
.55
.37
.53
.29
Inconsistency between parents
14 One soft, one tough parent
13 Lack of discussion about anything
.28
15 Children behave worse for one parent
.19
4
Fighting in front of children
.17
8
Inability to resolve disagreements about child care
.75
.60
9
Arguments about child care
.68
.50
12 Lack of discussion about child care
.54
.30
7
Disagreement about sharing child care workload
.49
.32
3
Disagreement over who should discipline the children
.41
.31
Percent of variance
19.34
15.68
Factor Structure-Extent Scale
Principle factor extraction was performed using SPSS on the 16 items of the
PPC Extent Scale using the complete data from 47 parents. Principle components
extraction was used prior to estimate number of factors, presence of outliers, absence
of multicollinearity and factorability of the correlation matrices. Inspection of the
correlation matrix revealed the presence of many coefficients of .3 and above. The
Kaiser-Meyer-Oklin value was .89, exceeding the recommended value of .6 and the
Barlett’s Test of Specificity reached statistical significance, supporting the
factorability of the correlation matrix.
Examination of the scree plot and eigenvalues suggested evidence to retain
two factors. Communality values, as seen in Table 9, were strong with 14 of the 16
items exceeding .5. Items were included on a factor if loadings were higher than .40;,
and where items loaded on to two factors, the largest factor loading was used to
determine placement. The two factors extracted accounted for 61.78% of the variance.
Ten of the 16 variables loaded on the first factor which accounts for 34.84% of the
variance and a further 5 variables loaded on the second factor which accounts for
26.93% of the variance. Item 11 “Parents favouring one child over another” did not
load onto either factor. Loadings of variables on factors and communalities are shown
in Table 9. For ease of interpretation variables are ordered and grouped in size of
loadings on factors.
It is suggested that the first factor is related to disagreements over discipline
and the second factor is related to disagreements over child-care, this finding is
somewhat consistent with the structure found for the Problem Scale. The two factors
for the Extent Scale in the present study are consistent with the child-care and
discipline factors found by Stallman et al. (submitted for publication), however the
present results do not provide support for the family processes factor found in the
previous study.
Table 9. Factor loadings and Communalities (h²) for the Two Factor Solution with
Varimax Rotation for PPC Extent Variables
Variable
Factor 1
Factor 2
h²
2
Disagreement over type of discipline
.80
.71
5
Inconsistency between parents
.78
.74
1
Disagreement over household rules
.77
.62
16 Disagreement over what is problem behaviour
.72
.70
10 Parents undermining each other
.72
.72
14 One soft, one tough parent
.64
.62
3 Disagreement over who should discipline the children
.63
.54
4
.62
.57
15 Children behave worse for one parent
.61
.57
6
.48
.30
Fighting in front of children
Children preventing parents from being alone
11 Parents favouring one child over another
.21
12 Lack of discussion about child care
.89
.85
8
Inability to resolve disagreements about child care
.83
.84
9
Arguments about child care
.79
.76
7
Disagreement about sharing child care workload
.65
.62
.54
.53
13 Lack of discussion about anything
Percent of variance
34.84
26.93
Discussion
The aim of this thesis was to gain a measure of parenting conflict in a
community sample and assess the contribution made by parenting conflict to the
prediction of child difficulty. An additional aim was to investigate the psychometric
properties of the Parent Problem Checklist (PPC; Dadds & Powell, 1991) and
examine the factor structure of the measure. The present results indicate that parenting
conflict was related to observations of child difficulty in the sample, and contributed
more of the explained variance in child difficulty scores than either marital conflict or
marital satisfaction. Results also suggest that the PPC displays excellent levels of
reliability and validity and can distinguish between clinically elevated levels of
problems relating to parenting. Furthermore, results of this study provide support for
two underlying factors for the measure of parenting conflict; discipline disagreement
and child-care disagreement.
Parenting Conflict in a Community Sample
The first aim of this thesis was to measure parenting conflict in a non-clinic
referred sample reflective of the general community. However, results indicate that
parents in the current sample may not be reflective of the general Australian
population as they reported clinically elevated levels of parenting conflict, marital
dissatisfaction and difficult behaviour in their children. It is interesting to note that
whilst parents reported that on average they were clinically dissatisfied with their
relationships they did not report overly high levels of general marital conflict. This is
despite scores on the marital satisfaction measure and scores on the marital conflict
measure being significantly positively related. For the current sample, higher levels of
marital satisfaction were associated with less marital conflict but overall parents only
reported clinically elevated scores on the relationship satisfaction measure. Parents
also reported clinically elevated level of parenting conflict as measured by both the
PPC Problem and Extent Scales. Overall, these results suggest that despite there being
low levels of general marital conflict, parents are experiencing high levels of childrearing related conflict and they are reporting dissatisfaction in their relationships.
Although the nature of the current study is correlation and therefore causality
cannot be shown, it is possible that the conflict that parents are experiencing relating
to child-rearing is sufficiently pervasive as to negatively impact levels of overall
marital satisfaction enough to account for the clinically elevated scores on the RQI.
These findings highlight the impact that parenting conflict may have, not just for child
outcomes but also for overall marital functioning. Furthermore, the children in the
sample were reported to be displaying clinically elevated levels of emotional and
behavioural difficulty, despite only a small number of the children being in
professional care.
Previous research has indicated some inconsistencies when considering the
relationship between marital functioning and child problems for boys compared to
girls. Some researchers have suggested that the effects are stronger for boys, however,
the majority of these studies were conducted with clinic samples (Jenkins & Smith,
1991; Jouriles et al., 1988). In keeping with results from Dadds and Powell (1991),
who found that marital conflict was predictive of child difficulty in boys and girls in
both clinic and non-clinic samples, and Jouriles et al. (1988), who found the
relationship between marital discord and child problems evident for both genders in
their community sample, the present study found no difference in child difficulty
scores according to gender.
Furthermore, there has been some debate as to the contributions of various
demographic variables such as socioeconomic status and income, to the relationship
between marital functioning and child behavioural and emotional difficulties (Jouriles,
Bourg & Farris, 1991; Ingoldsby et al., 1999). Jouriles, Bourg and Farris (1991) found
that association between marital adjustment and child conduct problems was stronger
in families of low socioeconomic status compared to higher socioeconomic status,
which was measured according to an index of education and employment information.
Results from the present study displayed no significant differences in child difficulty
according to family income, however respondents with tertiary qualifications reported
significantly lower scores on the child difficulty measure than parents with only highschool, trade or TAFE qualifications; suggesting that for the current sample lower
levels of education were associated with more child problems.
Additionally, family structure was found to influence child difficulty with
step-families reporting significantly higher scores on the child problems measure than
families with an original structure. These findings are in contrast to previous research
that has suggested that exposure to conflict, rather than family structure, is
problematic in the development of child behaviour problems (Forehand et al., 1988;
Grych & Fincham, 1990). It is possible that the higher levels of child difficulty in the
step-families is more reflective of higher levels of conflict within this family structure.
However, these results should be interpreted with caution, as there was an unequal
representation of step-families compared to original families in the present sample,
and further research comparing different types of family structures needs to be
conducted before any conclusions can be drawn.
Predictions of Child Difficulty
Previous research indicates that global measures of marital satisfaction and
marital conflict correlate weakly to measures of child difficulty in non-clinic samples
(Jouriles, Murphy et al., 1991). Studies have suggested that child difficulty is more
significantly associated with a more specific measure of child-rearing problems than
measures of marital conflict or satisfaction, thus it was predicted that parenting
conflict would be a better predictor of child difficulty than either marital satisfaction
or marital conflict (Dadds & Powell, 1991; Jouriles Murphy et al., 1991). Jouriles,
Murphy et al. (1991) found only weak associations between child behaviour problems
and general marital disagreement and exposure to marital conflict, but stronger
correlations between parenting disagreement and child problems. In accordance with
previous research, results from this study indicate that parenting conflict was more
strongly correlated with child difficulty that either marital conflict or marital
satisfaction.
It is noteworthy that there was no significant relationship found between
parents’ reports of child difficulty and scores of marital satisfaction, and there was
only a weak correlation found between marital conflict and child difficulty. There was
a general trend for lower levels of marital satisfaction, as measured by the RQI, to be
related to higher levels of child difficulty however, this correlation failed to reach
significance. These results are in line with previous research that suggests that these
global measures of marital functioning are lacking in specificity, and cannot
adequately capture the relationship between the specific components of marital
functioning that impact children (Jenkins & Smith, 1991; Jouriles, Murphy et al.,
1991; Kerig, 1996). It was predicted that all the relationship measures would correlate
with reported child difficulty but that conflict over child-rearing would account for
more of the variance in child difficulty scores than either marital satisfaction or
conflict. These hypotheses was generally supported as parenting conflict was the most
significant correlate of child difficulty scores and was a better predictor of child
emotional and behavioural problems in the present sample. However, not all the
relationship measures were significantly correlated with child difficulty as expected,
with the RQI failing to significantly correlate with the SDQ. Furthermore, it was
found that as specificity of the measures increased so did the observed relationship;
with parent conflict more significantly associated with child problems than either of
the other measures, followed by marital conflict which was weakly associated and
finally relationship satisfaction which did not significantly correlate with child
difficulty.
In addition, regression analyses showed that despite significant correlations
between child difficulty and demographic variables of family income, family structure
and parent education, these correlates did not significantly contribute to the prediction
of child problems. After accounting for these variables in addition to child age and
gender, only child-rearing disagreement and the marital conflict made significant
unique contributions to the prediction of child difficulty. Parenting conflict was found
to be the most important predictor of child difficulty, accounting for more of the
variance in these scores than the marital conflict measure. Overall, these results
suggest that parent conflict is the most important of the measured factors in predicting
child difficulty for the current sample.
Clinical Cut-offs
Using the established clinical cut-off of 5 or more areas of conflict as
measured by the PPC Problem Scale, it was found that the average number of
problems reported by the current sample was in the clinical range. Using the clinical
cut-off, parents were classified as either clinical or non-clinical on the Problem Scale
and the two groups were then compared to assess whether child difficulty scores
would vary significantly according to clinical status. It was found that parents who
reported clinically elevated areas of parenting problems also reported their child
displayed significantly more problem behaviours in the areas of emotional sensitivity,
conduct problems and hyperactivity. They also reported that their children displayed
significantly less pro-social behaviours than parents who reported in the normal range
on the Problem Scale. Furthermore, parents who reported in the clinical range for the
Problem Scale also reported more overall child difficulty. In sum, these findings
provide further evidence of the association between parenting conflict and child
behaviour difficulties, and highlights the usefulness of using the PPC to measure
inter-parental conflict as it relates to child behavioural outcomes.
There was no significant difference found between parents’ reports of
children’s peer problems for parents in the clinical range of the Problem Scale,
compared to parents in the non-clinical range. One suggestion for this is that parents
do not witness peer problems as readily as other difficult behaviours such as conduct
problems, and peer problems are likely to be more obvious outside the family
environment in situations like day care and school, where social interaction is more
frequent. If this is the case, then it may be beneficial for future research to gather data
on child difficulty from a variety of sources including teachers and carers, to get a
more complete measure of child behaviour.
Validity of the Parent Problem Checklist
Given the well-established reliability and validity of the RQI and DAS-CS, the
high correlations between the PPC Problem and Extent Scales and both the
abovementioned measures are evidence for the concurrent validity of the PPC.
Additionally, predictive validity is evidenced by the ability of the scores on the PPC
to vary accordingly between clinic and non-clinic scores on the RQI and the SDQ.
Both scales of the PPC also displayed excellent reliability in the present study.
Overall, the PPC appears to be a valid and reliable measure for assessing interparental conflict and thus would be a useful tool in clinical practice. The PPC could
be used by clinicians to inform them about aspects of family functioning and guide
the development of effective interventions aimed at assisting parents in their roles and
enabling them to effectively address the problems their children are displaying. .
The association between the clinical levels of parenting problems and
relationship dissatisfaction was also examined, and the two variables were found to be
related. For the present sample, parents were unlikely to experience clinically elevated
levels of parenting conflict without experiencing clinical levels of relationship
dissatisfaction. However, for parents in the non-clinical range for parenting problems
there was no real difference in the numbers of clinical compared to non-clinical
classifications of marital dissatisfaction. Whilst these two factors of marital
functioning are related it can be seen that they are not perfectly associated, as a third
of parents were classified in the clinical range for only one measure. This suggests
that whilst experiencing parenting conflict increases the likelihood of also
experiencing marital dissatisfaction it is not a necessary component. Whilst an
association between marital satisfaction and conflict is evidenced for the sample, not
all discontented relationships are characterised by parenting conflict hence there is a
need to assess the more specific factor of parenting conflict over and above
relationship satisfaction as it relates to children
Factor Structure of the Parent Problem Checklist
Results from the present study support a two factor solution for the PPC
Problem and Extent Scales. This finding contradicts previous reports of both a
unidimensional model (Dadds & Powell, 1991) and a three factor model (Stallman et
al., submitted for publication). For the current study, it appears that the PPC consists
of two factors assessing separate aspects of the parenting conflict. The Child-Care
Disagreement factor reflects conflict corresponding to how child-care responsibilities
should be shared between parents and the Discipline Disagreement factor reflects
conflict according to how parents manage discipline such as disagreement over which
behaviours are problematic and how their children should be reprimanded for
misbehaviour. However, there was difficulty finding a reliable factor structure for the
Problem Scale and almost a third of items did not load on either factor. It is suggested
that this is due to the dichotomous nature of measurement for the Problem Scale; it is
more likely that the construct of parenting conflict is continuous and by forcing
parents to arbitrarily determine when an issue moves from not being a problem to
being a problem results in a loss of information and an unstable factor structure.
Despite these concerns, the Problem Scale is a useful clinical tool that can inform
practitioners of the span of problem areas. The Extent Scale, as a continuous scale of
measure, provided a more stable factor structure, and there was considerable
consistency between the factor structures for the two scales.
Results from the factor analysis show that item 6, ”children preventing parents
from being alone” and item 11, “parents favouring one child over another”, did not
load onto either factor for the Problem Scale and that removal of these items
improved the explained variance. Similarly, item 11 did not load on either factor for
the Extent Scale and item 6 was the lowest loading item on the Discipline factor.
These results support the recommendation for the removal of these items, as they do
not seem to be indicators of either child-care or discipline disagreement. In sum, the
results of the factor analysis, and those found in previous studies, suggest that the
factor structure of the PPC is unstable across different samples, as no consistent
pattern has emerged. It is therefore likely that the measure is a uni-dimensional
measure of overall parenting conflict.
Limitations and Future Recommendations
The present study had a number of limitations that need to be considered when
interpreting the results. Firstly, the study used a small sample and there was an
unequal representation of mothers compared to fathers. Jenkins and Smith (1991)
found that fathers reported fewer marital problems and fewer child difficulties than
mothers in their sample, suggesting that fathers perceptions may differ significantly
from those of mothers. In contrast, Stallman et al. (submitted for publication), found
no significant differences in the scores on the PPC for mothers compared to fathers.
Therefore, it would be important for future research to assess fathers perceptions of
parenting and marital problems and directly compare their responses to those of
mothers, as it cannot be determined from the present study if fathers consider the
same parenting or marital issues as problematic or as intense as mothers do.
The parents in this sample, on average, reported in the clinical range for
parenting conflict, marital dissatisfaction and child problems. This suggests there may
be something about the type of families who responded to our study that may not be
reflective of the general population and therefore limits the generalisability of the
findings. It is possible these families were already experiencing marital and child
difficulties, which is why our study drew their attention and influenced them to
participate. Additionally, participants in the study were recruited through
advertisements in their children’s school newsletters. Schools were contacted through
email, given a brief description of the study and asked to place a notice in the school
newsletter. Despite the schools being given a draft copy of a notice to put in the
newsletter, the decision as to what exactly went in the notice was ultimately up to
each school and it is not known exactly what parents were told when they were asked
to participate. The information parents were given when being recruited for the study
is therefore unknown and this may also have influenced the type of parents who
participated.
Furthermore, there seemed to be confusion in our sample as to how to respond
to the PPC Extent Scale. Participants were asked to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to indicate
whether each issue is a problem for them, and if they answer ‘yes’ to indicate the
intensity of the problem by a score on the Extent Scale. Despite these instructions,
there were numerous parents stating that the issue was not a problem but still reported
an extent score that suggested that the issue was somewhat of a problem. Therefore, it
is recommended that parents be instructed to respond to both scales in the measure for
each item. The PPC Extent Scale is currently measured on a scale of ‘not at all’ to
‘very much’. This range allows room for parents who don’t perceive the issue as a
problem to indicate as such, but also relieves the problem of asking parents to draw an
arbitrary line between an issue being a problem or not.
A limitation common to most research on the relationship between marital
conflict and adjustment problems in children, is the use of correlational methodology
which prevents any conclusion of causality. Although the research demonstrates that
there is an association between interparental conflict and child adjustment problems it
has not been determined that marital conflict causes adjustment problems, and the
current study is unable to assess the direction of the relationship between marital
functioning and child difficulty. It is likely that the relationship between parent
functioning and child outcomes is bi-directional, in that parent conflict influences
child difficulty but that difficult child behaviour places stress on the inter-parent
relationship and impacts on marital functioning. Future research would benefit from
conducting longitudinal studies that can assess the impact of parent conflict in the
long term.
The current study, and the other two studies that have assessed the PPC
(Dadds & Powell, 1991; Stallman et al., submitted for publication), have used
samples that predominantly identify with the white ethnic group, so it is not known if
these findings are generalisable to other ethnic groups or cultures. Future research
should aim to assess the efficacy of the PPC in a more diverse sample of people to be
able to determine if the effects of parent conflict or even the perceptions of what is
problematic are cross-cultural.
Moreover, it may prove useful for future research to compare which of the
factors of the PPC correlate with different types of behaviour problems. It may be
clinically beneficial to determine if either the Child-Care Disagreement or Discipline
Disagreement factors are more significantly associated with different behaviour
problems. Additionally, this knowledge may serve to highlight areas that are likely to
be problematic with presenting families given their responses to the PPC, and could
guide clinicians in their assessments and development of interventions. Another
potentially beneficial direction for future research would be examining protective
factors in children that are exposed to parent conflict. Not all children exposed to
conflict develop significant emotional or behavioural problems and research should
assess what it is about these children that make them more resilient in the context of
inter-parent conflict.
Conclusions
In sum, the present research highlights the relationship between parenting
conflict and negative child outcomes, and demonstrates the usefulness to clinical
practice of the Parent Problem Checklist. The PPC was found to provide a valid and
reliable measure of parent conflict specific to child-rearing issues and was a better
predictor of child difficulty than either measures of marital satisfaction or general
marital conflict. The present findings should not be used to suggest that marital
conflict and marital satisfaction are inconsequential to the development of child
adjustment problems; rather that parent conflict may have a more direct influence on
problem child behaviour. The present study has highlighted the clinical utility in
measuring parenting conflict using the PPC as a tool to identify areas that may be
problematic for families, and can thus guide the development of interventions that can
be of benefit to the whole family. Future research should aim to assess the
mechanisms that are responsible for children developing adjustment problems in the
context of parent conflict, such as modelling aggression and self-blame, as this
knowledge may lead to a better understanding of family functioning and better
outcomes for children when exposed to parenting conflict.
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